{"id":581,"date":"2006-11-13T01:00:52","date_gmt":"2006-11-13T09:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/?p=581"},"modified":"2006-11-13T01:00:52","modified_gmt":"2006-11-13T09:00:52","slug":"employees-define-employee-satisfaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/?p=581","title":{"rendered":"Employees Define Employee Satisfaction"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Boggs Learning Chronicle blog highlighted<\/a> a survey of top ten employee satisfaction indicators as defined by 2.2 million employees. Granted, I didn\u2019t think much of the survey and my comments are below. Obviously what employees think is important is not what I think is important. All said, I virtually ignored their top 3 concerns, but I\u2019ll address the top 5.<\/p>\n

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  1. Higher salaries \u2013 pay is the number one area in which employees seek change.<\/strong> Well of course it is. And of course they are not going to get it. In the good \u2018ol days when compensation analysts did job evaluation based on points to determine the value of a job to the particular organization, it was possible that organizations valued identical jobs fairly differently (although usually that wasn\u2019t the case). In today\u2019s world where market surveys are used, almost all organizations are in lock step with each other. Employees of course want more money. But this isn\u2019t a problem with external equity since everyone else is paying the same rate. This is a problem with their skill set or the profession they chose. As such, higher salaries should not be any indicator of engagement.<\/li>\n
  2. Internal pay equity, particularly having concerns with \u201cpay compression\u201d (the differential in pay between new and more tenured employees).<\/strong> Pay compression is one of those annoying things. While unlikely in some professions (major law firms routinely pay people based on law school graduation year) more senior employees should theoretically be less subject to pay compression that at entry levels. I\u2019m going to theorize (with virtually no evidence) that our annual reviews of market surveys and the coordination of those surveys with our compensation plans and merit processes should eliminate most vestiges of pay compression. I say theory because while the technology exists, it\u2019s not always implemented or integrated. I also say theory because hiring practices may not be well coordinated with compensation management \u2013 thus creating additional compression.<\/li>\n
  3. Benefits programs, particularly health\/dental, retirement, and Paid Time Off\/vacation days. Specifically, many employees feel that their health insurance costs too much, especially prescription drug programs. <\/strong>We can\u2019t really argue with this one. Programs do cost too much, and PTO is insufficient. This is where communication programs like total compensation statements that include the employers cost of everything come into play. And while PTO is insufficient, unless you\u2019re comparing to a global scale, there isn\u2019t much to be done about it. The global workforce is not so fluid that the U.S. needs to compete with practices in the E.U. Workers are simply not able to move that easily.<\/li>\n
  4. \u201cOver-management\u201d (A common phrase seen in employee comments is \u201cToo many chiefs, not enough Indians\u201d).\u00a0<\/strong> Of this list, it took until #4 to get my attention. #\u2019s 1-3 I saw as superficial complaints that are part of the economics of business and are not subject to significant change no matter where the employee goes to work. Perhaps micro-management is also a factor here. One of the indicators for engagement is an employee\u2019s autonomy to affect the course of a project\/product\/process. Perhaps this also links in with #9 below \u2013 too many chiefs also translates into too much overhead which then translates into not enough people doing the real work. When leadership is questioned in the minds of employees, the entire business model must be put to question. At risk are not only employee engagement but also the employer brand.<\/li>\n
  5. Pay increase guidelines should place greater emphasis on merit.<\/strong>\u00a0 Yes. Integrate your performance and compensation management technologies, will you?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Much ado about nothing? If you take my opinion, yes, employees complain about things that are not meaningful to business or that are within the organization\u2019s ability to change. Everyone will agree that higher salaries would be nice but unless you can influence market rates it\u2019s a zero sum game. Your employees are never going to stop complaining about how little they get paid.<\/p>\n

    What employees should really be focused on is how they can perform better and get better career progression. These are the factors that affect their salaries and influence how they feel about other factors such as benefits. These are also the factors that we in HR should be focused on in our talent practices. We need to coordinate with communications to ensure the best assimilation of these plans into the workforce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Boggs Learning Chronicle blog highlighted a survey of top ten employee satisfaction indicators as defined by 2.2 million employees. Granted, I didn\u2019t think much of the survey and my comments are below. Obviously what employees think is important is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-engagement","category-strategies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}